Hello, this is a video explaining the past simple.

What did you do on the weekend?

Do you know the following countries?

Can you recognise the flag without reading the country name?

What do we call people from these countries?

Nationality means where someone or something is from.

I am from Australia, I am Australian.

Toyota is from Japan. It is Japanese.

Look below each flag to learn what we call people and things from each country

When we talk about languages spoken it is sometimes the same word as nationality.

For example:

They speak Japanese in Japan. (the language is from Japan, so it is Japanese.)

What about other countries? Do you know what languages the above countries speak?

What language do Brazilians and Mexicans speak?

If you said Spanish you would be half correct.

Spanish is spoken in Mexico, but there are some differences. So people often call it Mexican Spanish.

What about Brazil?

They speak Portuguese.

But wait, what country is Portuguese from?

Do you recognise the flag on the left?

That’s half of the Portuguese flag. It’s from the country Portugal.

What is the main language spoken in Australia, the US and the UK?

Did you say English? I hope you did.

Why is English called English?

Why isn’t it called British?

Why isn’t it called American or Australian?

The language English comes from the country England which is a part of the United Kingdom. British refers to anyone from the four kingdoms of the UK: Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland.

The term English also refers to people and things from England.

For example

The English soccer team.

Why do so many countries around the world have English as their national language?

 

Are you studying any languages? Why are you studying them? How are you learning it?

I am taking a class at the moment.

Present continuous is used to talk about what you are doing now.

We form it by using the present form of the be verb with the ing version of the verb.

For example:

I am using a computer now.

All the rules for using be verb apply:

You are reading.

He is driving a car.

English sense of now does not necessarily mean right now. It can be something that you started earlier this week and will finish later in the week.

for example:

I am reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

I’m not reading it right now but it is something I started reading earlier this week and will finish today or tomorrow. This is still considered something I am doing now.

Compare to:

I read fantasy novels.

This is the simple present. It means something I do regularly. In this case I regularly read novels in the fantasy genre.

You can use both simple present and present continuous to mean something similar.

For example:

I am taking English classes.

I take English classes.

These sentences are almost the same in meaning. The first one however suggests that it is something you recently started.

Another example:

I am living in Mexico.

I live in Mexico.

These mean almost the same thing. Either one can be used. As in the above example the first one may suggest that you recently moved to Mexico. Another possible difference is when you are talking to a friend who doesn’t know you moved to Mexico and you are giving them new information about what you are doing.

Adult Wednesday Class Week 3 August 2018

Vocabulary review

go to college / university

live at home – this phrase usually means living with your parents

write a paper – this phrase means writing a report, essay, article usually for academic purposes

take a class – this means a specific subject that you are studying either at a university or in a learning institution.

Listen to the following and answer the questions in Stretch 2 unit 3 1C and 1D

Listen again and write down the questions asked in the conversation.

Ask the questions to a partner.